Treasure Maps can help you attain your goals faster

In my international bestselling book, This is Your Life not a Dress Rehearsal, I wrote about using a technique I learned, known as “Treasure maps,” as an aid to manifesting your dreams and desires. You may have heard it referred to as “Dream boards” or some other name. The idea is the same, however, I can trace the use of the phrase “Treasure Maps” back to Catherine Ponder in the 1950’s. Of course, I learned it much after that:-)

A treasure map is one of the most powerful visual aids you can employ and is well worth explaining in more detail here.

The first time I used a treasure map was many years ago when I was beginning to rebuild my life. At the time I owned an old beat up car. Actually that is an understatement.

It was a twelve year old hunk of metal that barely ran. It had a vinyl top but most of the vinyl was worn away and what was left was peeling. There was a hole in the floor on the driver’s side that let cold wind in during the winter. I used to place my foot over it. The paint was fading and it did not run very well. My wife, who I was dating at the time, did not even want to ride in it. Whenever we went out we took her new luxury car.

My goal at the time was a new, top of the line Honda Accord. Knowing about the power of treasure maps, I had visited the Honda Dealer and obtained a brochure of the car I wanted. In addition to having a written goal of driving the new Honda, I placed a picture on the wall above my desk where I would see it throughout the day.

One day I took the picture down because the car was in my driveway. I owned a new Accord.

Please do not misunderstand, I am not suggesting that this just happened by itself. The car dealer did not drive by my house looking for someone to give the car to. I had to do certain things to improve my life to be in a position to make it possible. The treasure map helped speed things up by consistently imprinting on my mind that which I wanted.

Whatever you want to have in your life, use visuals to help your subconscious see what it is that you want. For example, if you want to go on a fabulous vacation to Hawaii, get some travel brochures and make a collage of the pictures of beach scenes, hotels, and other images that will give you visual reinforcement for your goal.

When we were looking for our current home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, I created a treasure map using a picture of Georgia and myself, pictures of Bucks County, a headline that said “Bucks County Pennsylvania,” ads for homes, and a picture of the kind of house we wanted. I wrote phrases and affirmations on it as well and hung it where we would see it daily. This helped reinforce our goal in our minds and helped bring it to us.

Visual aids are very powerful, if you doubt this just look at the impact television has had on people’s buying habits. The next time you look at a magazine, notice how much more powerful the ads with photos are as compared to those with just text. You too can use the power of the visual media to help you obtain what you want.

Thanks Jim. Creating mind maps was one of my first introductions to goal setting and manifesting what you want. My husband needs to create a new mind map because he too has the car and travel adventures he posted when he started his business in 2007. I’ve also created mind movies which are a lot of mind maps out to music and, words and movement. Click through to see what you can put in your treasure map for success.